Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
by Dennis Ingolfsland
This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 25, number 3 (2003). For further information or to
subscribe to the Christian Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org
Jesus was a peasant Jewish Cynic, who never thought of Himself as the Jewish Messiah, much less the
Son of God or the Savior of the world. This is the view held by John Dominic Crossan of the Jesus
Seminar, reputed to be one of the worlds leading experts on the historical study of Jesus.1 According to
Crossan and others who share his view, Jesus was simply an itinerant preacher who taught that the
kingdom of God had to do with how the world would be run if God sat on Caesars throne. Jesus
ministry had nothing to do with helping people find God, salvation, or heaven.
In the past 10 years, Crossan has written numerous books and articles about Jesus2 and has appeared in
several videos,3 debates,4 and teleconferences.5 He has also appeared on numerous television programs
including the ABC prime-time special entitled, The Search for Jesus, Discovery Channels Jesus: The
Complete Story, and the PBS Frontline program, From Jesus to Christ.6 If the members of your church
or class have not been exposed to Crossans teachings, it is likely that they will be.
Because Crossans view of Jesus is so different from the historic Christian view of the Jesus of the
Gospels, we need to be prepared to give a response to church members, students, and those to whom we
witness who have been exposed to Crossans scholarship.
Since the New Testament Gospels are clear about who Jesus is, we might begin by asking how Crossan
arrived at such dramatically different conclusions. At the risk of oversimplifying Crossans approach, he
virtually ignores most of the material in the Gospels and relies instead on other sources he thinks were
written before the Gospels. He calls these first strata sources. To qualify as a first strata source, the
document had to be written between A.D. 30 and 60. Because Crossan dates the New Testament Gospels
from the A.D. 70s to 90s, none of them qualifies as a first strata source.
Crossans sources include actual documents such as the Egerton Gospel,7 Papyrus Vindobonensis 2325,8
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1224,9 the Gospel of the Hebrews,10 and the Gospel of Thomas.11 Crossan usually
doesnt bother to mention that the vast majority of scholars believe that these documents, which in some
cases are only short scraps of text, were written in the second century A.D. or later long after the New
Testament Gospels!
Other sources Crossan relies on are merely hypothetical that is, they are based entirely on
speculations. These include the Miracles Collection,12 the Apocalyptic Scenario,13 and the so-called Cross
Gospel.14 The Cross Gospel, for example, comes from the Gospel of Peter, which is a second-century
apocryphal gospel. Crossan contends that the writer of the Gospel of Peter had copied from an earlier
source. He pulls some verses out of the Gospel of Peter and claims that he has recovered that earlier
source, which he calls the Cross Gospel. Crossan then proclaims that this Cross Gospel was written
before the canonical Gospels. Few scholars agree on either count, and without supporting evidence
Crossans Cross Gospel remains a merely hypothetical source.
MESSIAH
Jesus is said to be the Messiah not only in the four Pauline letters Crossan considers genuine Galatians,
1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, and Romans but also in two other first strata sources as well. The
Gospel of the Hebrews, one of Crossans first strata sources (not to be confused with the New Testament
book of Hebrews) explicitly calls Jesus the Christ or Messiah several times and speaks of Him as the One
who reigns forever.15 Another first strata source is the Cross Gospel, which says that Jesus was mocked by
being crowned with thorns and hailed as the king of Israel.
In Jesus day, anyone who challenged Herod as a rival king was most likely viewed as a would-be
messiah. This is a fact that Crossan himself seems to admit. In his book, The Historical Jesus, Crossan
discusses five men from the first century A.D. whom he recognizes as would-be messiahs.16 His source for
this information is Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian who wrote between A.D. 70 and 90. Josephus
did not explicitly call any of these five men a messiah, but Crossan considers them would-be messiahs
because each of them had aspirations to royalty.
While Crossan acknowledges five first-century men as would-be messiahs, he does so on the basis of only
one source, Josephus, who does not even qualify as a first strata source. Crossan denies, on the other
hand, that Jesus thought of Himself as the Messiah even though three of Crossans own first strata
sources identify Jesus as Messiah.
SAVIOR
Paul called Jesus death a sacrifice of atonement17 and likened it to the sacrifice of the Passover lamb.18
Paul said that for those who have faith in Jesus,19 His death results in redemption,20 justification,21 recon-
ciliation,22 salvation,23 eternal life,24 removal of condemnation,25 and rescue from the coming wrath.26 The
Christian might believe that Pauls word is sufficient evidence to show that Jesus was known by His
earliest followers as Savior, but in Crossans methodology there must be two or more independent
sources to confirm this fact and again, there are.
The second source is the Cross Gospel, which says one of the men being crucified with Jesus called Jesus
the savior of men.27 A possible third source is the Gospel of Thomas 82, which quotes Jesus as saying he
who is far from me is far from the kingdom. Entrance into the kingdom, according to this passage, was
dependent on having a relationship with Jesus.
Three of Crossans earliest sources, therefore, seem to present Jesus as the Jewish Savior, and according to
one of these sources, Jesus believed this to be true about Himself. In first-century Jewish society there was
only one true Savior and that was God.
The fact that three of Crossans first strata sources present Jesus as the One who brings salvation
something only God could do raises the question of whether these sources also proclaim Jesus as the
incarnation of God. The answer is yes.
First, not only did Paul claim that all things exist through Jesus, but he also called Jesus the Son of God28
and the Lord of Glory.29 He even applied Joel 2:32 directly to Jesus, though in its original context it
referred to God.30 In addition, many scholars believe Romans 9:5 in the original Greek directly calls Jesus
God.31
Second, the Gospel of the Hebrews clearly teaches the preexistence and incarnation of Jesus, calling Him
the first-begotten Son who reigns forever.32 According to the Gospel of the Hebrews, When Christ
wished to come upon earth to men, God entrusted Him to the angel Michael, who came into the world
as Mary.33 While this is a rather fanciful way of portraying Jesus incarnation, the point is that the Gospel
of the Hebrews clearly teaches that Jesus is the incarnation of God.
Finally, hints of Jesus incarnation are in Crossans Miracles Collection and in the Gospel of Thomas.
According to the Gospel of Thomas 77, Jesus said that it is from Him that all came forth. The passage is
open to interpretation, but it sounds strikingly similar to 1 Corinthians 8:6, in which Paul said there is
one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist (NRSV).34 In
Crossans Miracles Collection, Jesus is charged with blasphemy, and even Crossan acknowledges that
being equal to God is implicitly present in the accusation of blasphemy from Mark 2:7, which is part of
Crossans Miracles Collection.35 It appears, therefore, that three or four of Crossans first strata sources
assert that Jesus was the incarnation of God.
Nothing in this article should be construed as lending support to Crossans creation of sources out of
whole cloth, such as the Cross Gospel, the Apocalyptic Scenario, or the Miracles Collection. The purpose
of this article is to show that even if all of Crossans first strata sources really were written earlier than the
New Testament Gospels, and even if we accepted only data that could be attested in two or more sources,
nevertheless, the Jesus we find in these sources is radically different from the Jesus Crossan proclaims.
Crossan proclaims Jesus as a peasant Jewish Cynic who preached a message of egalitarianism and did
not think of Himself as the Messiah, much less as someone who was equal with God Crossans first strata
sources, however, actually paint a picture of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, Savior, and incarnation of God.
When believers, therefore, see Crossan denying the historic Christian view of Jesus in his books, articles,
and television appearances, they need not be concerned that new sources or research methods have
undermined their faith.
NOTES
1. John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991).
2. Adventure Story, Bible Review 16, 5 (2000): 27; Blessed Plot: A Reply to N. T. Wrights Review of The Birth of Christianity,
Scottish Journal of Theology 53, 1 (2000): 92; The Challenge of Christmas: Two Views, Christian Century 110, 36 (1993): 1270;
Commentary and History, Journal of Religion 75, 2 (1995): 247; Earliest Christianity in Counterfactual Focus, Biblical
Interpretation 8, 12 (2000): 92112; The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, Christian Century 108, 37 (1991): 1194; A Tale
of Two Gods, Christian Century 110, 36 (1993): 1270; What Victory? What God? A Review Debate with N. T. Wright on Jesus
a Victory of God, Scottish Journal of Theology 50, 3 (1997): 345; Why Christians Must Search for the Historical Jesus, Bible
Review 12 (1996): 3439, 4245.
3. A Death in Jerusalem (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press, 1996); Faces on Faith: An Interview with John Dominic Crossan (Nashville:
EcuFilm, 1995); Faith and Reason (Shreveport, LA: D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation, 1997); The Historical Jesus and Earliest Christianity
(Louisville, KY: Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 1996); The Historical Jesus Lecture (Duluth, MN: University of
Minnesota at Duluth, 1995); Jesus and the Kingdom: Peasants and Scribes in Earliest Christianity (New York: Parish of Trinity
Church, 1996); Jesus the Peasant (Topeka, KS: Washburn University, 1993); Westar Institute and the Jesus Seminar Present John
Dominic Crossan: Jesus, a Revolutionary Biography (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press, 1994).